Mexican singer Rivera dies in plane crash

Wreckage of plane carrying Mexican-American superstar Jenni Rivera and six other people found in Mexico.

Aviation authorities lost contact with the aircraft carrying Rivera 10 minutes after it left Monterrey [EPA]

Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera has died in a plane crash after the small jet she was travelling in went down in northern Mexico, her father said.

A spokesman for the state government of Nuevo Leon said investigators had found debris of Rivera's Learjet, which disappeared from the radar 100km from the northern city of Monterrey shortly after takeoff early on Sunday.

Speaking after the wreckage was discovered, the singer's father, Pedro Rivera, told Telemundo television all seven of the people on board the plane, including two pilots, had died.

Rivera's publicist, lawyer and makeup artist were also aboard the plane. "Everyone was lost," Rivera said, flanked by two sons.

Investigators are still searching the crash site in the municipality of Iturbide, south of Monterrey. The transportation and communications ministry said the wreckage was strewn so far and wide that it was hard to recognise anything.

It was not clear what caused the crash.

Rivera, 43, was heading for the city of Toluca in central Mexico after a concert in Monterrey on Saturday night.

Born in Long Beach, California, to Mexican immigrants, Rivera sold some 15 million records in her career, won several awards and received Grammy nominations, her website said.

A mother of five, Rivera was a renowned performer of the Nortena and Banda musical styles.